Star Trek Discovery: Danger Zone

Chapter Ten

Holy...!" Johanna Nilsson wasn't sure which expletive to use, but she didn't get it out anyway, not before the gunship banked hard and sent her rolling on the passenger bench, the straps barely containing her. She braced herself with her bad hand and then howled at the bolt of pain that ran up her arm.

The view outside the open hatch showed a blur of dark, jungle canopy, the rushing stars, then the jungle canopy again.

"Watch it, Keyla!" Osnullus shouted over the open comm-link to the cockpit. "This thing has performance limits!"

Keyla's laugh rang over the link. "Oh we are definitely taking this bitch to her limits!"

Johanna and Osnullus exchanged a look which very clearly said, we are going to die and it is all Keyla Detmer's fault.

The gunship lurched again, and Johanna felt the G-forces grab her stomach in an iron claw. A second later the world outside the hatch flared and she saw jungle canopy bloom with orange flame.

"They're shooting at us!" Johanna yelped, then felt silly for stating the obvious.

"Well, we better start shooting back," Osnullus snapped, and unlatched her straps, then wound them around her waist in a makeshift tether. She stumbled her way to the door gun.

"Aw, dammit..." Johanna sighed and rearranged her own straps in the same manner, then she staggered toward the door gun, fighting the centrifugal force all the way. Finally, she managed to grab the gun's grip in her left hand and she felt it come alive; its servos and gyroscopes engaged at her touch. She was pleased to find she could use it one-handed.

The gunship lurched again and picked up altitude, leaving Johanna's stomach somewhere to the left of her boot soles.

"Always run in a zigzag from a Komodo dragon..." Linus drawled from his supine position.

"Geez..." Nilsson griped, and draped her right arm over the gun's receiver and sighted out into the darkness. The gunship dropped, returning her stomach to her body—somewhere in her pelvis now—and she saw the ferocious, bat-like shape of the Klingon landing craft. Green energy crackled near its wingtips and harsh disruptor bolts hurled past the gunship. Johanna felt the side of her face prickle with their heat. She squinted through the optical sight and pulled the trigger. The door-gun fired disruptor pulses in such rapid succession they were almost a solid beam of light.

"Cool!" she shouted to Osnullus. "It real easy to aim!" Osnullus gave her a thumbs-up.

Suddenly, the Klingon ship drew abreast of them, close enough that Johanna could see the insignia for House of Hak'karrl on one leathery-looking wing, illuminated by the running lights. A hatch opened on the ship's skin-like surface and Johanna found herself looking across the expanse at a half-dozen or so Klingon warriors clad in their ornate armor, their heads shaved. They shouted and pointed, then raised weapons that to Johanna's eyes looked for all the world like French horns fused with survival knives.

Green energy bolts exploded inside the cabin, burning the bulkheads and blowing out the interior lights. Osnullus lost her balance and fell to the deck. Johanna gritted her teeth and sprayed the Klingon ship, walking the rapid disruptor pulses to the open cabin and sending Klingon warriors falling to the deck as she mowed them down.

Johanna raked the Klingons with fire until the ship tilted and fell back.

"Yeah, you better run!" she shouted.

Then something flashed.

*********

Keyla watched as the night became day, ever so briefly. White, burning, bright day.